The Cost of Workplace Stress

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For employers, and the self employed, workplace stress can have significant personal and financial effect. According to the mental health charity Mind, stress costs the UK economy 100 billion every year, and in the US it\’s thought to be somewhere between $200 and $300 billion. With the potential for huge savings, as well as ensuring the mental wellbeing of business owners and their workforce, the advantages of reducing work related stress and encouraging corporate wellbeing are becoming increasingly evident.

The Effects of Stress

While some people find stress exhilarating, few people accept now that those who experience it negatively have poor coping skills, or a bad attitude, and can be hectored into a better performance. Additionally, while deadlines and demanding but rewarding workloads can be seen as a motivating part of working life, there are some scenarios that induce damaging stress almost universally.

These include discrimination, bad working conditions, unreasonable expectations and lack of support. Good practice as an employer should make it easy to avoid creating these kind of situations for staff, and people who run a business alone should take due care so they don\’t place themselves under unbearable pressure. However, in the modern workplace there\’s inevitably going to be strain that is harder to avoid.

This strain has both a human and commercial impact. Mental health issues have overtaken back pain as the main reason people are unable to work in the UK, and anxiety and stress accounts for the loss of 45 million working days a year. There are also problems when anxious and burnt out employees do not take time off and struggle on, leading to mistakes, under-performance and low productivity.

Stress suppresses the immune system which results in high absenteeism, as well as avoidance behaviour. High staff turnover increases the substantial costs involved in training new staff, and in some cases stress can also contribute to unethical behaviour such as taking short-cuts in order to get a job done and lying to customers. As a result, businesses staffed by pressured employees can find their reputation is affected, as well as their profits.

How to Tackle it

The realities of modern working life make a certain amount of stress inevitable, especially in an increasingly competitive and connected world where it is possible be on call 24/7. However, knowing the importance of a healthy and happy workforce, corporate wellbeing is becoming a key consideration for business owners, and something which many businesses could benefit from.

Meditation classes are being implemented by businesses from Google to Procter & Gamble, displaying a focus on the health and happiness of their employees. Scientific data on the stress-relieving and productivity-boosting qualities of meditation has made it a credible business strategy and business leaders, such as Steve Jobs, sometimes encourage the practice after personally benefitting from it.

The relevance of the benefits of meditation, such as increased productivity and a reduction in the stress hormones overwhelming people\’s systems, are clear for a business setting. With 80% of employees reporting stress at work, introducing meditation programs makes good sense on both a human and financial level. Business owners stand to gain a reduction in sick leave, less staff turnover, as well as an improvement in the productivity and positivity of their staff, all things that are bound to improve their business. Furthermore, by contributing to the happiness of their workforce, meditation at work can influence people\’s lives outside of their career, and ultimately make their community a better place.